From 8 legs to 440, a Spider Story

Here's our subject, a "daddy longlegs" spider, pholcus phalangioides.  Often found roaming in houses, laying a nearly invisible silk trail wherever they go, they find a quiet hidden spot to rest up for the winter.  Their only sustenance during that period is anything that happens to cross their path, often one of their own species which has been disturbed

from it's resting place.  This one I disturbed during an autumn clearout of cupboards, so I put her into a jam jar (USA, jelly) which she immediately took a liking too as a safe place inwhich to settle down.    Over the weeks as I came upon another of the species I placed it in the jar on a "best man wins" basis, but this one consistently won and ate the others.   Eventually one brave male made mating advances and was successful, but she still ate it afterwards just the same.  More regular meals followed including a fat moth and her abdomen swelled considerably.

Here's that swelling, and along the flank of the abdomen you can clearly see a cluster of eggs which resulted from that mating, there's a similar group on the other flank.  Although she had become very tame with me before, at this stage she was very nervous, tending to face me and hide her abdomen, hence the poor quality of this snatched shot.

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